Mega Comics CheckList

– Dave Davison is the subject of Project: New Man, a partly secret joint venture of the U.S. Government and the Fortress Foundation, a private sector non-profit philanthropic organization dedicated to public defense and scientific research. Dave has the dual role of being part of the research project and at the same time being groomed by the Government as a public protector in the Five Lakes Megalopolis area. Dave has a dark past which he hoped was dead and buried but in his first public adventure he confronts his past and an old partner head on in “The Mall Massacres”. Legacy Comics 1991 Black and White 32 page Independent Comic: Project: New Man #1is FREE to read in this very Web Browser!

– His actual identity is as much a mystery as what drives him. He calls himself Ebenezer Baal, and he is The Haunted Man but he intends for misery to have company as he in turn haunts Dave Davison a.k.a New Man. We find out in this origin tale Dave was not always a hero, and it seems his past is easily as shady as the criminals he now pursues! Co-Starring The Thunder Hawks! The backup story from Legacy Comics 1991 Black and White 64 page Independent Comic: Humants #1! FREE to read in this very Web Browser!

– Dave Davison A.K.A New Man goes out for a morning jog only to return to the Moriah Building under a full scale attack from Cyber-Tech! Also featuring Bearcat, and the Thunder Hawks! Featuring lots of never before published material! 32 action packed pages FREE to read in this very Web Browser!

– We tie up a lot of loose ends in this issue as The Haunted Man concludes. We find out the true identity of Ebeneezer Baal, see Bearcat in action again, see the abduction of Fawn and Nick, Cyber-Tech escapes plus a special secret surprise guest-star! Yeah! This one has it all!Featuring lots of never before published and some ALL-NEW material! 32 action packed pages FREE to read in this very Web Browser!

– High crime rates, higher gas prices, inflation and garbage strikes, are one thing but the recent unnatural storms have the residents Five Lakes Megalopolis rattled. Then the appearance of unusual individuals wielding supernatural powers precede the coming of a walking, flying nightmare! His name is Megeddon, Dark Lord of the Hecati and his chief servant, the powerhouse called Devastax! Krystal McKliston is an investigative reporter looking into these mysteries as she learns there are “Humants Among Us!”The lead story from Legacy Comics 1991 Black and White 64 page Independent Comic: Humants #1! FREE to read in this very Web Browser!

– The Herald, Magistar, and Man Ark must enter into deadly battle with Megeddon, the Dark Lord of the Hecati and his chief servant, the powerhouse called Devastax! Their goal: no less than total world destruction! Krystal McCliston, investigative reporter, tries to capture the action on video while dodging falling debris. She later comfronts a new villain: The Tower! Janeta Rosebud meets Omni Spawn and things will never again be the same! The lead story from Legacy Comics 1992 Black and White 48 page Independent Comic: Humants #2! FREE to read in this very Web Browser!

– Omnispawn ushers in yet another Humant: The Savage Chaosta! Also having survived their first encounter with the evil Dark Lord Mageddon, the Khosmotic Warriors have banded together and rented an old warehouse to use as a headquarters and training facility. Featuring lots of never before published material! 32 action packed pages FREE to read in this very Web Browser!

– This issue features the all out war between the Humants and the Renegade Humants! It's action from cover to cover as Freazie White, Jr. writes and does finished pencils over Mark Poe's layouts and we introduce a new inker, Paul Schulze! Featuring lots of never before published material! 32 action packed pages FREE to read in this very Web Browser!

– What happens when you try to administer first aid to an unconscious Humant? Well, in the case of Chaosta things could get pretty scary when she wakes up and thinks she is still battling the Renegade Humants! Man Ark and Sojourner find a lot of trouble for their efforts! Plus: Much More by Freazie White, Jr. new inker, Anthony Grayand Billy Leavell with Letters and Edits! PLUS: An offbeat Bearcat backup tale! By Mark Poe, Freazie White, Jr., Mark Alan Lester and Billy Leavell! Featuring lots of never before published material! 32 action packed pages FREE to read in this very Web Browser!

– Tess is a young lady who is a living tesseract. She comes from another dimension and in our dimension she can teleport herself or just about anything else just about any where. She manifests the power in a number of ways other than teleportation and she has a cute little 4th dimensional dog with a very high I.Q. named Nostradamus. In short: we are 3D beings, Tess and Nostradamus are 4D beings.Plus: Much More by Greg Legat writer/creator, Mark Poe with pencils, letters and colors! and J. Adam Walters handling inking embellishment. Featuring never before published material! 32 action packed pages FREE to read in this very Web Browser!

Watch for more coming soon!

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Posts Tagged ‘Iron Man’

Friday! Whew! 😀 What a week! Paper work! That’s about all we’ve done this week!

So we decided to take a little break and browse some old favorite covers. We enjoyed our little stroll down memory lane so much we decided to share some of our findings with you. Enjoy the gallery! You will find Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Gene Colon, Jim Steranko, John Romita, Wally Wood, Bill Everette, Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia, Don Heck, Vince Colletta and Neal Adams classic work that was the foundation of Marvel Comics back in it’s heyday in the 1960’s! Over all it was the Silver Ageof Comics but it was called by Stan Lee, who wrote most of the scripts for these milestone issues, the Marvel Age! I think Roy Thomas wrote one or two as well. 😉 These are the writers and cartoonists that most influenced us, but there were others as well, and we’ll share those one day soon.

Next week! We are still officially on sabbatical but should have some noticeable improvements to the site next week. Keep your fingers crossed and we might even have a preview or two of our new titles too. So bear with us a little longer please.

Have a nice weekend! Other than Basketball there’s not a lot going on this time of year. Most of the country is still enveloped in the icy grip of a very long Winter but Spring is just around the corner so hang in there.So much for Global Warming, eh? 😉 Remember Y2K!

Any questions or comments? All are welcome.

Click the images for today’s web comics updates.

CU Next Week!

The Marvel Age Cover Gallery:
[svgallery name=”MarvelCovers60s”]
Like the Man said, ’nuff said!

Friday? What happened to the week?! 😀 Well, things have not exactly come off on schedule this week. We had hoped to have another post for you this week but we just couldn’t do it. We did finally get all our 2008 bookkeeping out of the way and now it’s in the accountants hands to get it ready for Uncle Sam. Whew! We’re glad that’s over.

Everyone loved the 60’s Marvel cover gallery we put up last week we decided to do it again. We give you 150 reasons why Marvel was such a success in the 1960’s! Again brought to you by Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Gene Colon, Jim Steranko, John Romita, Wally Wood, Bill Everette, Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia, Don Heck, Vince Colletta, Steve Ditko, Chic Stone, Paul Reinman, Dick Ayers, Gil Kane, John Severin, Maria Severin, Herb Trimpe, Jay Gavin, George Tuska and Neal Adams. Without these talents there well may not have been a Marvel Comics! Marvel today owes all it is to these founding fathers who along with Stan Lee and Roy Thomas gave us the Marvel Age of Comics!

In the day, covers were designed to maximize the attention of buyers at newsstands. It was not as much about the art as it was selling that issue! Some were more like ads than covers. Early on Stan Lee populated the covers with word balloons and all manner of hyperbole. The covers themselves had to tell a story enough to entice the customer to pick it out from among all the other choices. As the 1960’s rolled on less words were on the cover, often just the title logo and maybe the name that issues story. So take another stroll with us down memory lane and see how Marvel, the small upstart of that day, got there foot in the door to make the sale.

Next week! We will start back to posting more often as we get back on schedule. We’ll clue you in on what’s been going on behind the scenes and start getting you prepared for the debut of our new titles.

Dave Simons is an inherently notable artist in comics history! 🙂 Dave Simons has been doing comics either inking or penciling or both for the better part of 4 decades! Most of his work has been at Marvel but he has also had some work for DC and some in the animation field as well. Dave has worked on one project or another for nearly every character in the Marvel Super-Hero Universe including Spider-man, Ghost Rider, and Conan to name a few. He has worked with Frank Miller, Rich Butler, Gene Colan and many other notable talents in comics. He has done a large body of work and done it very well. He may not be one of those names that is as recognizable as the ones above because he has always taken the back seat in assignments, being mainly an inker/embellisher and always more concerned with contributing to the team than in gaining notoriety for himself. More on his career in just a moment…

Recently Dave was diagnosed with cancer and the prognosis has not been good. Having worked all his life amassing a large archive of art as his resume but never having garnered a lot of headlines or generated a lot of royalties. Now, he finds himself struggling to make ends meet with the added cost of medical bills along with the normal day to day bills. The comics community has been finding out little by little because Dave has been keeping it all to himself never to be one to ask for a handout. NHaving learned of the ordeal, Comics Fans and Professionals are rallying to his aid to help a guy who has always helped others, in his time of need.

Dave participated in the big Gala Kickoff Celebration launching the Facebook Comic Con. Several sites have been set up for him and in his honor. Also his own personal web site and his new Wikipedia entry. In addition there are some auctions of his work and other notables who have contributed works to raise money to help ease Dave’s financial burden! The art at the below and to the right is one such piece by Dave himself being auctioned on eBay.

Now here’s a little more about Dave as promised above from his recently added Wikipedia entry by Daniel Best.

Dave Simons is an American comic book writer and artist. Simons has worked in comics since the 1970s and is well known for his work on Conan, Ghost Rider, Howard the Duck, Dracula, Forgotten Realms and more recently Courage the Cowardly Dog. He has worked with some of the giants in the field such as John Buscema, Bob Budiansky and Gene Colan.

Early Years
Dave Simons grew up in New York and always wanted to be a comic book artist. “I always wanted to do comics since I was about eight years old,” Simons said, “so I started making a point of drawing something every day. I figured if I just kept doing that, then eventually I’d get better at it.” After a stint in the Coast Guard, and a chance series of meetings with Frank Robbins, Simons elected to undertake formal training to be an artist. As part of his education Simons attended the now legendary art workshops run by Marvel Comics artist John Buscema. It was while attending these classes that he became friends future comic book artists Ken Landgraf and Armando Gil. It was through Landgraf that Simons produced his first published work, which consisted of mainly commercial illustrations and the occasional soft-core pornographic comic book. Breaking away from Landgraf, Simons and Gil formed an alliance and friendship that continues to this day.

Marvel Career
Approaching then-Marvel editor Rick Marschall at a convention in the early 1980s, Simons was able to get his samples seen and assessed. At the time Marschall was overseeing the black and white magazine line for Marvel and Simons was duly assigned the duty of inking the first issue of the Howard the Duck magazine. After submitting the story Simons was assigned a fill-in Falcon story, which he inked with the assistance of Gil over Sal Buscemas pencils. This marked his first professional work for Marvel and in mainstream comic books.

Simons was then assigned both pencilling and inking jobs for Marvel. One of the artists who’s pencils he inked was Gene Colan. “Gene Colan was always my favorite penciler to work on,” says Simons today. “That was like a match made in heaven because a lot of people didn’t understand Gene’s shading. I thought ‘this is great, this is a great jumping on point if you’re gonna do black and white stuff’.” Simons attention to detail came into high demand in the 1980s and his inking credits include artists such as Keith Pollard, Ron Wilson, Frank Miller, John Buscema, Marc Silvestri, Greg LaRoque, John Romita Jr, Ed Hannigan, Walt Simsonson and more. Titles that featured his inking include Thor, The Thing, Marvel Premiere, Night Thrasher, Iron Man, King Conan, Dr Strange, Star Wars, Star Trek, Thundercats and others.

Simons’s tenure at Marvel wasn’t limited to inking. He proved himself to be a very capable penciler and his pencils and ink combination were featured in titles such as the Spectacular Spider-Man, Team America, What If, Marvel Comics Presents, Bizarre Adventures, Red Sonja, Web Of Spider-Man, King Conan. He also provided cover art to titles such as Power Man & Iron Fist, Ghost Rider, Darkhold, Machine Man, Kull The Conqueror, Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two In One, Crystar, Moon Knight and many others. “Pencilling, if you’re doing it right,” said Simons, “is a much tougher gig than inking. Even though I usually liked to know what was going on, with inking you don’t necessarily have to be involved with the story. With pencilling you have to be intimately involved with the story because you’re the one who’s bringing the writers work and intentions across to the readers, as to what he’s trying to communicate there. You have to think of the drama, the camera angles, and the composition, make sure you leave room for the word balloons, all those sorts of things.”

Ghost Rider
Simons’s best known Marvel work was his run on the first series of Ghost Rider. His run on the title saw him first inking veteran artist Don Perlin before joining with Bob Budiansky to create one of the best remembered runs of the characters history. Budiansky and Simons worked with writers Roger Stern and J.M. DeMatteis. “The only speed bump we hit in this whole thing was when Simons, who of that team is the unsung hero, left,” Budiansky recalls. “He used to come to the office dressed in leather. I mean, this was not an act, he’d come dressed in one of these black leather, zipper jackets. I don’t know if he also wore leather pants. He might have worn them. But anyway, the point is, he knew how to ink leather, which was really important for Ghost Rider. So when he left the book we never really were able to replace that look that he gave the book. The rest of the team was all somewhat saddened by his departure.” Marvel attempted to duplicate the highly detailed and rendered look that Budiansky and Simons were able to give the character when the character was relaunched in the early 1990s but never quite succeeded.

DC Career
In the 1990s Simons left Marvel and crossed companies to DC. At DC he worked on titles such as Deathstroke The Terminator, Spelljammers, Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms, the latter he inked over Rags Morales’s pencils. “I liked the combination of me and Rags Morales,” says Simons, “He has that Frazetta thing going on and I was hip to that and tried to bring that out a lot.” Simons also worked on a number of cartoon based books during his time at DC and his work is featured in titles such as Cartoon Network Block Party. During this time he also illustrated Roger Rabbit at Disney.

Animation Career
In the late 1990s Simons left the comic book industry and moved into animation. As an artist he provided storyboards to such shows as Captain Planet, Exo-Squad Masters Of The Universe, Zula Patrol, Psi-Kix and Maya and Miguel. Recalls Simons, “The list of shows I’ve worked on is certainly longer than the list of comic books that I’ve worked on at this point.” Simons also directed the show Spy Dogs and worked again with Gil on this show, hiring him as a storyboard artist. Simons has the distinction of working on both an animated TV program and the comic book spin-off at the same time, this was when he worked on the animated show Courage The Cowardly Dog, which he subsequently drew the DC comic book of the same name.

Post Animation
Simons is known as a creator of characters. He has developed his own co-creation, Beastball Saga, with Sebastian Mondrone. He is also developing a new character, Donna Thyme, with writer Daniel Best.

Simons’s most recent work has been on the book Army Of Darkness, along with contributing art to various trading card sets issued by Rittenhouse. He has also contributed art to variant covers for series such as Red Sonja and the ‘100 Hulks’ project. Simons is also active with commissions.

Tomorrow we’ll have a Dave Simons Gallery. Now let’s finish up today with some Mega Comics!

Tess Cover Art Preview

Mega Tales # 1 is a couple of weeks from it’s web debut featuring Greg Legat’s character: Tess! That’s short for tesseract. The image you see to your left is a back cover Mark Poe did back in 1987.

If you don’t know what a tesseract is Wikipedia defines it as: In four dimensional geometry, the tesseract, also called an 8-cell or regular octachoron, is the four-dimensional analog of the cube, which is in turn the three dimensional analog of the square.

Below is another artifact from Wikipedia, a neat little gif animation released into the public domain by its author, Jason Hise which gives us a little better undersatanding of the concept…I think.

Anyway, Tess is a young lady who is a living tesseract. She comes from another dimension and in our dimension she can teleport herself or just about anything else, just about any where. She manifests the power in a number of ways other than teleportation and she has a cute little 4th dimensional dog named Nostradamus. The book was originally to be published by Dimension Graphics but unfortunately never saw print.

Greg Legat created and wrote Tess while Mark Poe, and J. Adam Walters did the art. The series for the web will be in full color.

Saturday night Gene Colan was honored at theComic Art Professional Society(CAPS)banquet. Marv Wolfman spoke about his long-time collaboration on such comics as Tomb of Dracula, Night Force, Curse of Dracula and many others. He also talked of being a fan of such Marvel Comics titles as Gene’s Tales of Suspense featuring Iron Man and Daredevil long before he ever got a chance to work with him. He wanted Gene to know how much he and his work meant to him. Marv Wolfman along with several other writers at Marvel that started in the ’70’s were fans of the Marvel Age in the ’60’s.

Others in attendance and speaking were, Mark Evanier, Gerry Conway, Sergio Aragones, as well as CAPS President, Pat McGreal. Former CAPS president and publisher over at Bongo Studios, Bill Morrison, introduced the evening as Master of Ceremonies.

Not in attendance in person was Mr. Colan himself. Due of health issues, Gene and his wife Adrienne could not attend the event in Los Angeles, but thanks to the marvel of video conferencing technology and Skype to be specific, Gene and Adrienne were seen on screen live in New York, could hear everything said and speak to attendees as well. See Marv Wolfman’s site for more details. To see some awesome Gene Colan art go to his Mr. Colan’s site.

The Yankees did it! Yes, last night the New York Yankees beat the LA Angels 5-2 to secure the American League pennant and a trip to face the Philadelphia Phillies, in the World Series opener on Wednesday evening. It should be a good one!

Have you ever felt overwhelmed?Have you ever felt like you have got so much to do and so much more you have promised you would do that it looks like there is just no way to get it all done? That’s where we are now! We are approaching our second anniversary here at the Mega Comics Group virtual offices and frankly we’ve done a lot! We have posted about 300 pages of comic book story and art. We use to know the exact number but we’ve forgotten now! 😉 We’ve also put up about the same number of blogs plus page by page commentary and info on each page of comic art plus a whole slew of sketches, concept drawings and whatnot, not to mention all the industry news and tributes! A new reader of this site could literally spend days reading all the material we have posted here. But don’t get the idea we are tooting our own horn here! Perish forbid! But then since it is our horn who else would toot it? 😉 So whats the point of this little bit of braggadocio? Just a little reminder to ourselves and whoever else might be interested that even though we may be just a tad bit behind schedule we are far from done! We are in the process of trimming out the fat and getting to the meat of what we want to do here with Mega Comics Group! We’ll borrow a phase from our esteemed Publisher-In-Training and Creator of Catch Phrases, Mark Poe and say we will “Begin Again!” Yeah, whenever you feel overwhelmed with obligations, don’t give up, just stop, reorganize and “Begin Again!”

Next week! We will start a new little feature we want to call Archives Spotlight. This is something we’ve had in mind for several months actually but had not thought of exactly how to do it. As we said in the above introduction, we have somewhere around 300 pages of comic art on this site. It takes more than half a gig to hold it all on our server and yet we don’t think we have utilized it to it’s fullest. For that short sightedness we apologize. But we hope to make amends with the Archives Spotlight. Too often once comics on a web site are posted initially it’s like the work goes into the archive limbo never to be mentioned again. That should not be. So, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays we’ll put the spot light on our archived titles and re-present them as we did when we first posted them. We realize everyone does not like re-runs but we do have new readers coming in all the time so they may appreciate our spotlighting what’s in the archives. Some older readers will enjoy seeing them again.

Also Next Week: We’ll give you the lowdown on just what ol’ Stan “The Man” Lee is doing these days and it has nothing to do with Marvel Comics.

And to set the stage for our Archives Spotlight… While this is not our comics it is one of the tributes to our heroes who inspired us to attempt publishing comics in the first place! We are doing a re-posting of the 150 Reasons Marvel Comics Succeeded cover gallery we posted about a year ago. Enjoy!

Everyone loved the 60’s Marvel cover gallery we put up last week we decided to do it again. We give you 150 reasons why Marvel was such a success in the 1960’s! Again brought to you by Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Gene Colon, Jim Steranko, John Romita, Wally Wood, Bill Everette, Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia, Don Heck, Vince Colletta, Steve Ditko, Chic Stone, Paul Reinman, Dick Ayers, Gil Kane, John Severin, Maria Severin, Herb Trimpe, Jay Gavin, George Tuska and Neal Adams. Without these talents there well may not have been a Marvel Comics! Marvel today owes all it is to these founding fathers who along with Stan Lee and Roy Thomas gave us the Marvel Age of Comics!

In the day, covers were designed to maximize the attention of buyers at newsstands. It was not as much about the art as it was selling that issue! Some were more like ads than covers. Early on Stan Lee populated the covers with word balloons and all manner of hyperbole. The covers themselves had to tell a story enough to entice the customer to pick it out from among all the other choices. As the 1960’s rolled on less words were on the cover, often just the title logo and maybe the name that issues story. So take another stroll with us down memory lane and see how Marvel, the small upstart of that day, got there foot in the door to make the sale.

We’ll try to keep this one brief! 🙂 But you know how we Mega Web Minions tend to ramble on around the virtual offices of the Mega Bullpen!

The Boston Comics Con! This weekend if you are in the area or if you have transportation be sure to check out the Boston Comics Con! Guests include Jim Lee, Mike Mignola, J.H. Williams III, Eric Powell, Bill Sienkiewicz, Jim Starlin, and Joseph M. Linsner!

Come join us at ournew larger location located at the Westin Boston Waterfront, just minutes from South Station! We are excited to offer over 24,000 square feet featuring dozens of vendors and the best national and local artists in one room.

TheBoston Comic Con is excited to feature one of the superstars of the the comic book industry, Jim Lee! He will be appearing at both our Saturday and Sunday shows.

Jim Lee created a massive fan following in the 90’s drawing X-Men before leaving Marvel to co-found Image Comics. His studio Wildstorm now falls under the DC Comics banner where he works on their flagship titles, Batman and Superman. He recently helped to create the DC Universe Online MMORPG.

In February, it was announced that Jim Lee has been promoted to co-publisher ofDC Comics! The Boston Comic Con will mark Jim’s first convention appearance in his new role. Be sure to attend his panel on Sunday to hear about the future of the DC Universe!

Admission is $15 per day. Tickets are only available at the door. Get there early!Children under 10 free with adult admission.

Expect a fun filled two days of comics, artists, and much more Saturday and Sunday April 10-11, 2010!

Ms. Inkwell! 😮 WOW! The guys over at the Inkwell Awards have been talking about their new trademark and spokes person for a few months now. Later this month, at the Pittsburgh Comicon, you can meet her! Yeah, she’s a real person not just a hot looking cartoon character! 😉 Here’s a little info courtesy of Mr. Bob Almond:

I thought I’d put a spotlight my upcoming shows and signings in this entry. Right around the corner is the Boston Comic Con on April 10-11 at a new venue and a cast of thousands where I will debut the new Inkwell Awards brochure and 2010 Donation Book and my family will spend the Sunday with me. On April 23-25 I will make the annual roadtrip with Zeke, Alyn, and Bob to the Pittsburgh Comicon, which has become like a ‘home’ show to me. Not only did they have me contribute to the show’s t-shirt art inking over Glenn Klimeck‘s image with Iron Man and Black Widow in anticipation of Iron Man 2 (I’ll post a color file if I’m sent one in a separate entry) but this is the venue that will introduce model Chrissy Cutler as the Inkwell’s spokesperson Ms. Inkwell. And don’t forget Inkwell Hall of Fame namesake Joltin’ Joe Sinnott!

Archives Spotlight: We continue our look back at the Archives Spotlight on our previously posted web comics. We’ll be looking at all that’s come before with this feature and adding new comments as well. This month we are reviewing Project: New Man! Stay tuned to this section Monday, Wednesday and Fridays for more news on our archived titles.

Project: New Man #1 – Page 4 –Originally this book was to be inked by one inker but some problems came up that did not allow the originally slated inker to do the job. This posed a big problem but then we met Thomas and Nathan who came in and saved the book, with a little assist from Mark and Allan!

Dave has decided on a course of action regarding the Mall Serial Killer he just read about in the paper. Meanwhile, Dawn and John continue the debate on how to best divide up research and training for Dave.

Mark’s Remarks: I don’t remember now what inspired this story, it’s been 18 years or so. At the time there may have been one or two mass public shootings like ”The Mall Massacres”, but since then there have been many “Columbine” type tragedies. It’s a shame we can’t come up with a solution as easily as we forecast such horrors these days.

We’re getting a little excited about the Golden Age HeroesProject! That’s because we’re seeing pencils and inks our esteemed Publisher-In-Training and resident cartoonist at large, Mark Poe has been doing on said project. We can’t show you just yet, ’cause he’d have a cow if we did! 😉 But next week we should start to see at least a preview of the first 100 page book we have been calling Mega Spectacular #1. That name by the way, may be subject to change for a few reasons, one being we’re beginning to suspect it’s too close to or flagship title Mega Tales (Which is on sale now if you look at our ad to the right of this column! Unabashed plug!). So look for that title to change as we mix it up a bit.

We have some new target dates! Sure we’ve given you dates before and we, for one reason or another, did not get the promised publication out. We admit it! The beauty of first doing this stuff on the web is it’s more flexible. We have not missed any deadlines for Distributors or anything like that. Which, if you don’t know, is a cardinal sin in this business! Plus you get to see a lot of the behind the scenes turmoil we go through to get all this done! AND we have gotten most of what we promised out on time like the 4 issues of Project: New Man which you can still read in it’s entirety right on this site! And then there was theHumants 5 issues series! Then we brought you the first adventure of Tess, the Living Tesseract in Mega Tales #1, which those lucky enough to be paying attention got to read all of, on the web, before we cut it back to a 10 page preview promoting the printed addition. That issue is on sale now just in case you have not heard. 😉 So there! We’re not total bums! Just part time bums. But enough of this frivolity! What we started off to tell you is: we have set our target date for September to have the Golden Age Heroes Project up and going. We also tentatively may have Mega Tales #2 ready to start. All Mega Bullpeners and Maniacs take note! So hang in there, hombres! Like the lady sang “We’ve Only Just Begun!” Not bad for a 2 year old, eh?

And now a bit of a re-posting from one of our Friday blogs from last year: Hmmm…Actually we’ve used this gig twice in the past year haven’t we? Oh well, some things are worth a second or third look! Enjoy!

Everyone loved the 60’s Marvel cover gallery we put up last week we decided to do it again. We give you 150 reasons why Marvel was such a success in the 1960’s! Again brought to you by Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Gene Colon, Jim Steranko, John Romita, Wally Wood, Bill Everette, Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia, Don Heck, Vince Colletta, Steve Ditko, Chic Stone, Paul Reinman, Dick Ayers, Gil Kane, John Severin, Maria Severin, Herb Trimpe, Jay Gavin, George Tuska and Neal Adams. Without these talents there well may not have been a Marvel Comics! Marvel today owes all it is to these founding fathers who along with Stan Lee and Roy Thomas gave us the Marvel Age of Comics!

In the day, covers were designed to maximize the attention of buyers at newsstands. It was not as much about the art as it was selling that issue! Some were more like ads than covers. Early on Stan Lee populated the covers with word balloons and all manner of hyperbole. The covers themselves had to tell a story enough to entice the customer to pick it out from among all the other choices. As the 1960’s rolled on less words were on the cover, often just the title logo and maybe the name that issues story. So take another stroll with us down memory lane and see how Marvel, the small upstart of that day, got there foot in the door to make the sale.

No Final Video trailer for Mega Tales #1 Yet! This has been another learning process indeed! We have the video looking good in iMovie and in Quicktime. When we get it to YouTube we are losing something in the translation. But we’ll keep on until we get it.

Next week! We will get back to looking at the hottest conventions going on this summer. Sorry we missed that Monday, but as always, see the large ad in the right hand sidebar to go to the page with all the convention info on it.Possibly a preview of that Golden Age Heroes Project. And lot’s more! See ya then!

______________________________

Archives Spotlight

We continue our look back at our previously posted web comics. We’ll be looking at all that’s come before with this feature and adding new comments as well. This month we are reviewing Project: New Man! Stay tuned to this section Monday, Wednesday and Fridays for more news on our archived titles.

Mark’s Remarks:Dave analyzes his real first adventure since becoming New Man. Max adds his years of experience as guidance for our hero. Just how Max got involved in the project will be revealed in the next issue which we’ll roll out in just a few more days at the conclusion of this landmark publication.

Green Lantern Illuminates the Big Screen!

Coming to a theater near you!DC’s Green Lantern movie will debut in the Spring of 2011! It marks the first time the Silver Age character has been on the movie screen in a live action performance. Marvel’s recent success with Iron Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and of course Spider-Man has finally prompted DC Comics and parent company Warner Brothers to extend their Super Hero movie offerings beyond Batman and Superman. We’ve purloined a few still shots and promo pieces here for your viewing pleasure.

SideNote: We’re not sure, in all cases, just what pieces DC has actually released and what fan’s have created. The technology which fans have access to these days makes it hard to tell. These pieces can be found all over the internet. A couple of fan generated YouTube vids we watched looked as good, and some said even better, than what Warner Brothers put out! Of course if you want the actual official Warner Brothers trailer just go the websitewww.greenlanternmovie.warnerbros.com. Some of it looks promising, while some of it we’re not so sure about.

The Official Press Release:

In a universe as vast as it is mysterious, a small but powerful force has existed for centuries. Protectors of peace and justice, they are called the Green Lantern Corps. A brotherhood of warriors sworn to keep intergalactic order, each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants him superpowers. But when a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy the balance of power in the Universe, their fate and the fate of Earth lie in the hands of their newest recruit, the first human ever selected: Hal Jordan.

Hal is a gifted and cocky test pilot, but the Green Lanterns have little respect for humans, who have never harnessed the infinite powers of the ring before. But Hal is clearly the missing piece to the puzzle, and along with his determination and willpower, he has one thing no member of the Corps has ever had: humanity. With the encouragement of fellow pilot and childhood sweetheart Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), if Hal can quickly master his new powers and find the courage to overcome his fears, he may prove to be not only the key to defeating Parallax…he will become the greatest Green Lantern of all.

Mark Poe, our esteemed Publisher -In-Training and oft times movie critique weighs in with his two cents worth…

Mark’s Remarks

WOW! The Green Lantern was always one of my favorite characters from the ’60’s and ’70’s.

This, of course, was the second Green Lantern comic book readers were treated to. The Golden Age Green Lantern was very different.

The first GL had a magic ring with which he did his amazing, heroic feats. The second GL had the same shtick with the ring but, as with most things in the’60’s, the rings workings was explained by science or to be more accurate, science fiction. This new Green Lantern did not operate alone either, he was backed up by an entire Green Lantern Corps! This was a really cool idea! GL was like an interstellar police officer! Nothing like this, to my knowledge, had been done in super hero comics. It made for a great springboard for storytelling!

During the Silver Age of Comics GL’s creators John Broome and Gil Kane adapted what Bill Finger and Martin Nodell, had created in the Golden Age. DC creators had used this same formula to revitalize their other flagging characters starting with the Flash, and later on old stand-by’s like Hawkman, and the Atom. They also revitalized the old Justice Society of America to a more modern, for the time, Justice League of America. Editor Julius Schwartz resided over these titles and had a hand in directing the revival of the super hero genre for DC much the way Stan Lee did with Marvel. While Stan and Jack built the Marvel Universe, Julius and company re-built the DC Universe.

Sales were good for most of the ’60’s until a drop off occurred after ’68 which incidentally happened about the same time the live action Batman show was canceled which had brought a mini-boom for all super hero comics while it was on the air. Young talents Denny O’neil and Neal Adams were brought on board the Green Lantern book and turned loose to do very much anything they wanted. New interest was created in the aging title as a hipper, more relevant Green Arrow was teamed up with Green Lantern and stories which were more appealing to the readers of the Woodstock era. Even so the title was eventually canceled, a causality of a changing of the guard in the audience as the Silver Age and Marvel Age drew to a close.

Then came the revivals… Green Lantern enjoyed a one toward the end of the ’70’s as the Green Lantern/Green Arrow team was revived this time by Denny O’neil and Mike Grell. I enjoyed this series even though it was not as relevant as the O’neil/Adams collaboration or as innovative as the Broome/Kane issues. I was not real thrilled with GL’s treatment in the ’90’s and I was not alone in that sentiment. Hal Jordan became the bad guy Parallax and was replaced by Guy Gardner, Jon Stewart and finally Kyle Rayner. I really don’t know what they are doing with him these days in the comic books. Yes, I admit I don’t keep up with the mainstream comics too well these days, I prefer the indys. But I do like to pick up the trade paperbacks, collections and graphic novels form the mainstream publishers.

I certainly hope Green Lantern is a good film and will generate interest in bringing other DC characters to the big screen. There are tentative plans for sequels if this one is successful. I would really like to see that. It would be a treat, if done right, to see a movie of the entire Justice League! It could happen! 🙂

Archives Spotlight

We continue our look back at our previously posted web comics. We’ll be looking at all that’s come before with this feature and adding new comments as well. This month we are reviewing Project: New Man #2 and Humants #1! Stay tuned to this section everyFriday for more of our archived titles.

Project: New Man #2 – Page 17 – So David “Killer” Kane will take on a new identity as Dave Davison in “Witness Protection” type fashion. He’s sentenced to death, so life even as a genetic Guinea Pig doesn’t sound so bad, besides if things did not go as planned he could always escape. Although conflicted about his own motives he is still very confident in his covert ops training.

Mark’s Remarks:This page has a better flow to it I think… and a little better mix of perspective in an attempt to make “talking heads” a little more interesting.

Humants #1 – Page 16 – Shhh..now listen carefully, reader. Much is to be learned from this conversation between Devlin Delano and his chief lackey, Gregory Lawthers.

Mark’s Remarks: Here’s Freazie White, Jr.’s version of “talking heads.” In scripting this first issue of the Humants Freazie made good use of the conversation between the industrialist Devlin Delano and his chief gofer Gregory Lawthers to give us some vital exposition to the story. But fear not Action Attics! Freazie will be bringing all you can stand in in just another page or two! Plus we’ll get to see the origin of the Humants main bad guy… Mageddon!

Truth, Justice and the Captain America Way!

Cap’s Entertainment Weekly Cover

Cap’s original shield.

Next up on our look at upcoming super hero movies is Captain America! So far we don’t know a whole lot about this one. It’s suppose to be out in July of this year, but other than a few still photos and the basic premise Marvel seems to be keeping a tight lid on this project. This isn’t the first time they have tried to do a movie about the star spangled World War 2 legend and the previous attempts were met with less than enthusiastic reviews.

As with out previous previews, we will turn this over to Mark Poe, our esteemed Publisher-In-Training and part time Historian.

Like the photos? There are plenty more cool looking wallpaper for your computer desktop images like you see here from: www.comicbookmovie.com .

Mark’s Remarks

A glimpse of the government project which turns Steve Rogers into a Living Legend.

The Living Legend of World War 2!Stan Lee used that phrase over and over to describe Captain America during the 1960’s Marvel Age of Comics. Along with Jack Kirby and the Marvel Bullpen of artists and inkers, Stan turned a Golden Age character who, after the World War, was all but forgotten into, a household name. Of course, turning obscure characters into cultural icons was what Stan and Jack were all about in those days! They brought a company that didn’t even really have a name, which published movie and TV knock-offs to become the top selling comic book publisher by the end of the decade. This was accomplished in large part due to the marketing savoir faire of both Stan Lee and then Publisher Martin Goodman who never missed an opportunity to merchandise the Marvel Characters. Whether the opportunity was stationary, t-shirts, model kits or the animated series which ran on TV. Stan did not miss a trick. There was movie proposals as well but none ever panned out in the ’60’s.

Then came the ’70’s and Marvel’s first live action attempts. Captain America appeared first in a 1979 made for TV movie on CBS: Captain America, which aired January 19, 1979. Later that same year Captain America II: Death Too Soon debuted November 23, 1979, both starring Reb Brown as Cap. Other than the character names these films resembled the Marvel Comics characters very little. Although not bad movies these still fell short of fan expectations. Neither did the changes made in the characters and story relate better to the TV viewers of the time who had never read the comic books.

Captain America: The First Avenger 2011

There was also a 1990 film titled Captain America, starring Matt Salinger. This movie was shot in Yugoslavia. It was fairly faithful to the Marvel Comics version depicting the origin of Captain America from the 4-F (rejected) volunteer soldier Steve Rogers. The movie showed his World War 2 missions and his apparent death at the end of the war. Then he is found decades later frozen in ice, and being awakened from suspended animation, he must deal with being a man out of his time like a modern Rip Van Winkle. The Red Skull is in this one too, but for some reason they made him an Italian fascist rather than a German Nazi. Weird. This film itself was never released in theaters in the US, but it was released on VHS in 1992. I saw the previous two movies but I never saw this one. From everyone I’ve talked to or read after who has seen it I’ve not found any positive reaction to it. Apparently after doing a few test screenings, Marvel decided it was not good enough to release to theaters.

It is worth mentioning the ’40’s serial film about Captain America. I never saw this either but I’ve read the plots, which are very loosely based on the Marvel Cap and I’ve seen still images from the film. From what I’ve seen it doesn’t look like a winner.

That brings us back around to the 2011 Movie.

“In 1942, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is deemed too physically unfit to enlist in the U.S. Army and fight the Nazis in World War 2. Volunteering instead for Project: Rebirth, a secret military operation, he is physically transformed into a super-soldier dubbed Captain America. With sidekick Bucky Barnes, he fights the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), Hitler’s treacherous head of advanced weaponry, whose own plan for world domination involves a seemingly magical object known as the Tesseract.“

I have high hopes from the photos I’ve seen. If you notice the uniform Cap wears for this film, you can see the producer is trying to use a more realistic approach and play down the spandex. The uniform is based off airmen’s jackets from the World War 2 era and the gloves and boots from some of the GI gear. There is said to be an effort in the script and direction of the story for Steve Rogers to laugh at the costume they want him to wear to USO rallies, which is the comic book version of the Captain America costume. Instead of settling for ridicule of wearing the “Patriotic Pajamas” Steve get’s in contact with Howard Stark, Tony (Iron Man) Stark’s dad, and has him design and make a more battle sensible uniform. This should add a bit of realism to the super hero myth, since most real people would never wear the traditional super hero tights.

Reminder: The folks at comicbookmovie.com has reported official movie trailers for both the Thor and Captain America movie trailers are to aired during this year’s Super Bowl .

Even though there is no official Captain America trailer out YET, regardless of what folks posting to YouTube tell you, there are plenty of fan created teasers. Some are very good, like the following:

Any questions or comments? All are welcome.

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Archives Spotlight

We continue our look back at our previously posted web comics. We’ll be looking at all that’s come before with this feature and adding new comments as well. This month we are reviewing Project: New Man #2 and Humants #1! Stay tuned to this section everyFriday for more of our archived titles.

Mark’s Remarks: Once again Freazie White, Jr. Creator, artist and editor of the Humants title as well as Project: New Man’s scripter, turns in some great work! Very nice, natural, dialog between these two characters.

I was also pleased with the art here, which is now 100% my pencils and inks. Look closely and you will see my artistic influences. There are hints of Jack Kirby, John Byrne, Terry Austin and Joe Sinnott on this page. Still I had room for improvement, as is always the case.

Humants #1 – Page 19– Mageddon, the Spoiler of Dimensional Integrity! The Dark Lord of the Hecati! Not a guy you want to hang around for sure. Lawthers better find a fast exit while he can!

Mark’s Remarks: No, not a good day for Gregory Lawthers at all! The origin of Mageddon continues! Freazie and Al turned in another great page here! With just a little inking assist as well as half tone shading from yours truly. 😉

The Living Legend of World War 2!

Cap in full uniform.

Don’t miss Super Bowl XLV this Sunday on the Fox Network! It has been announced the official movie trailers for both movies featuring Thor and Captain America will be aired during this weekend’s Super Bowl. Of course the match up of The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers might be worth watching too. 😉

We have some new photos and info for the Captain America movie! More and more is coming out about the new movie which is officially titled: Captain America: The First Avenger. The title itself is revealing to sharp eyed Marvel Comics fans! As we understand it, this is to be the first of 3 movies which lead to the climatic introduction of the Avengers movie.

In the latest issue of Empire Magazine there’s a lot of new images from the movie. Check out the cover here on your right. Photos in the magazine include Chris Evans as Captain America, Hayley Atwell as Cap’s girlfriend Peggy Carter, Tommy Lee Jones starring as Col. Chester Phillips and many more.

We are not sure if this is the Official teaser copy, but this seems to be slightly edited versions floating around the web at various places. Regardless of the source it a good read!

Born during the Great Depression,Steve Rogers grew up a frail youth in a poor family. Horrified by the newsreel footage of the Nazis in Europe, Rogers was inspired to enlist in the army. However, because of his frailty and sickness, he was rejected. Overhearing the boy’s earnest plea, General Chester Phillips offered Rogers the opportunity to take part in a special experiment…Operation: Rebirth.

After weeks of tests, Rogers was at last administered the Super-Solider Serum and bombarded by ‘vita-rays.’ Steve Rogers emerged from the treatment with a body as perfect as a body can be and still be human. Rogers was then put through an intensive physical and tactical training program. Three months later, he was given his first assignment as Captain America. Armed with his indestructible shield and battle savvy, Captain America wages war against evil.

Cap Movie Tie-In Comic

There will be an eight issue limited comic book series tie-in. Cover artist Paolo Rivera, known for his work on Spider-Man, revealed his latest work for Marvel’s new digital comic book series for the anticipated movie. The eight-part series is titled Captain America: First Vengeance. Written by Fred Van Lente with a rotation of artists doing a story set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Each issue showcases a specific character from the movie, both heroes and villains. The stories act as a back story prelude for the movie. A pre-production copy of the cover can be seen here.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a shared fictional universe, much like the Marvel Universe in the comic books. Developed by Marvel Studios for the superhero films based on the Marvel Comics characters, it features shared plot elements in the films, settings, and characters much the same way Marvel Comics have been done since their beginnings. Contrary to what you might think, only three films set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been released. These were Iron Man, the 2008 version of The Incredible Hulk , and Iron Man 2 in 2010. The Spider-man, Fantastic Four, X-Men and first Hulk movies are not a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is actually a rebooting of the Marvel Movies going forth. Four additional planned films are in the works which include Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger. The Avengers is in pre-production and Iron Man 3 is still in early development. Reboots of Spider-man, Fantastic Four, and X-Men are also in the works.There is also talk of films featuring S.H.I.E.L.D., Ant-Man, Black Panther, Ka-zar, the Punisher, Cable, Iron Fist, Nighthawk, the Vision, the Black Widow, Dr. Strange, Luke Cage, Dazzler, War Machine and Power Pack.

Cap and sidekick Bucky Barnes in World War 2.

So Captain America: The First Avenger is just 1 part of a much larger whole. Long time comics fans will recall Bucky Barnes was Cap’s sidekick back in WW2. In the new movie Bucky has not been forgotten, although he might not be recognizable to some fans. Actor Sebastian Stan is to portray a “dark” Bucky Barnes in the film. Not many details are available concerning the movie version of Bucky that we’ve been able to find so far. A photo showing Cap and Bucky together can be seen here.

Some Captain America movie concept art.

Now here’s the lowdown on the cast courtesy of Wikipedia:

In December 2009, director Joe Johnston indicated he planned to start filming in April 2010. In a separate interview that month, he described the film’s pre-production: “Rick Heinrichs is production-designing and we’re set up down in Manhattan Beach, California. We have eight or ten really talented artists, and we all just sit around all day and draw pictures and say, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if we could do this?’ It’s that phase of the production where money doesn’t matter: ‘Let’s put all the greatest stuff up on the wall and then later see what we can afford.’ ” The film,” he said, will begin “in 1942, 1943” during World War II. “The stuff in the ’60s and ’70s comic books we’re sort of avoiding. We’re going back to the ’40s, and then forward to what they’re doing with Captain America now.” Johnston confirmed that the Red Skull would be the film’s primary antagonist. In February 2010, he stated that the World War II-era super team the Invaders will appear in “the entire second half” of the film, though in November he shot down speculation that the Sub-Mariner, an Invaders team-member in the comics, would be included.

Variety reported in March 2010, that Chris Evans was cast as Captain America, and Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull.

In April, Sebastian Stan, who had been mentioned in media accounts as a possibility to play the title role of Captain America, was cast as Bucky Barnes. Stan is contracted for multiple films. Also in April it was announced that Hayley Atwell had been cast as Captain America’s girlfriend Peggy Carter as well as the changing of the film’s name from The First Avenger: Captain America to Captain America: The First Avenger. The next day it was reported that Joss Whedon would be re-writing the script for Joe Johnston’sCaptain America: The First Avenger as part of his negotiation to write and direct The Avengers. However the extent of Whedon’s polish on Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely’s script remained unknown. Whedon later clarified in an August interview that “I just got to make some character connections. The structure of the thing was really tight and I loved it, but there were a couple of opportunities to find his voice a little bit — and some of the other characters — and make the connections so that you understood exactly why he wanted to be who he wanted to be. And progressing through the script to flesh it out a little bit”. Samuel L. Jackson revealed in an interview that he will reprise his role as Nick Fury in the film. Kevin Fiege later confirmed that Fury’s elite special unit of US Army Rangers, the Howling Commandos would also appear.

In May, Marvel Studios confirmed Hugo Weaving will play the Red Skull. Toby Jones entered final negotiations to play Arnim Zola. Iron Man director Jon Favreau said a younger Howard Stark would appear in the film, played by Dominic Cooper. Tommy Lee Jones will have a role in the film. By June, Neal McDonough was in talks to play Dum Dum Dugan. Four days later, McDonough confirmed he was taking the part. On the same day, Stanley Tucci joined the cast as Dr. Abraham Erskine, the scientist who created the Super Soldier Serum.

A blast from the past! Take a look at these clips from YouTube. Originally aired on the Marvel Superheroes animated show way back in the ’60’s. This animated feature was made directly from the comic book art by Jack “King” Kirby.

Any questions or comments? All are welcome.

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Archives Spotlight

We continue our look back at our previously posted web comics. We’ll be looking at all that’s come before with this feature and adding new comments as well. This month we are reviewing Project: New Man #2 and Humants #1! Stay tuned to this section everyFriday for more of our archived titles.

Project: New Man #2 – Page 21 – Don’t worry. This isn’t a Christain Pamplet and we’re not trying to convert you! One thing we like to depict in our stories is diverse characters. Hey! That’s reality. We all know people like these, right? So we have some characters who are Christian, some who are not religious at all, some who are Atheist or Agnostic. You really never know what kind of character will show up in our tales just like you never know what kind of folks you will meet in real life. But isn’t that the spice of life? Wouldn’t things be boring without it?

Okay so now let’s get our focus back on the story here. Dave is a little surprised at how close Max’s comparisons match up with his conversation with the Warden. It makes an impression on the guy. One that will have some bearing later on in the story.

Mark’s Remarks:As the story unfolds you may notice some similarities in New Man’s origin to that of a certain red, white, and blue Avenger! That’s because Captain America’s origin tale was a great inspiration for our hero.

Humants #1 – Page 20– Now here is a nicely done page. One of Freazie White, Jr.’s best and that’s saying some! Actually Freazie got even better with his pencils and storytelling as we progressed in the series. Just wait until you see issue 2!

Billy Leavell, our ace letterer, came up with the spooky way of doing Megaddon’s word balloons. It really adds to the mood of the scene, eh?

Now we have introduced the team and the villians, time for some action… on the next page!

Mark’s Remarks: Now, I like this page! I thought Freazie did a great job penciling this one as did Al inking it. I added some tones to give it an even more serious feel!

Photos From The Front Lines!

Cap’s Movie Website

If a picture is worth a thousand words, just think how much all these are worth! Did you see the official movie trailers for the movies Thor and Captain America on last Sunday’s Super Bowl? Both movies certainly appear to be winners! Could the latest hero flicks from Marvel be as good as Iron Man? As alluded to above, if these photos from the movie trailer are any indication… well, in the words of Stan Lee, ’nuff said! It’s something to look forward to this Spring and Summer, for sure!

Private Steve Rogers

Volunteer Guinea Pig

Project Rebirth

Hook Me Up!

Into the Rebirth Chamber!

Bombarded by Vita Rays!

Reborn!

This Is A Test!

Motor Bike Action!

Leader of the Free World

Red Skull!

Leaping Into Action!

So instead of filling the page with type this week we decided to let you soak in these still photos from the Captain America movie. If you have not already, check out the official website where you can see the trailer, download the movie poster for your computer wallpaper on your desktop and download the free digital comic book tie in! It’s the official Marvel StudiosCaptain America: The First Avenger movie site: www.captainamerica.com.

Any questions or comments? All are welcome.

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Archives Spotlight

This section is where we look back into our own web comics archives. In 2008 we started posting our previously printed works from the ’90’s under the Legacy Comics Banner and added a lot we never got to publish with Legacy as well before it’s demise. Along the way we added new material and repackaged each story from it’s original format more like what was originally planned for these books, but due to the lack of funds was never carried out. Each Friday we will review a page from Project: New Man and Humants! We are also adding new comments and insights into these treasury editions. Enjoy!

Project: New Man #2 – Page 22 – Dave is shaken by Max’s comparisons. Isn’t that always the case, here we are going about our business in the real world and suddenly we hear something, or see something that arrests our attention and causes our thinking to dive deeper, below the surface. Up to this point, Dave was thinking maybe he’s been set up by the CIA and Max knows something. Then he realizes this guy is speaking of his faith but it’s parallel to what’s happening to him now. Hmmmm…. 🙂

Mark’s Remarks:I got a little criticism from certain folks on my use of floating heads in the first panel. At the time I drew this, my intent was to focus attention on the expression on the faces, particularly Dave’s. But looking back at it now I can see the point of the critique. I should have either made the shot closer, so all we would see is the faces, or else added the two characters necks and shoulders. Oh well, live and learn! 🙂

Humants #1 – Page 21– Okay now for Chapter 3 ofHumants # 1! We met this guy a few pages back. The name’s Sojourner, and he’s from some exotic location near Egypt. He’s also a master of Martial Arts, a subject which Freazie has had more than a passing interest in his own life. The little guy getting beat up is Scamp. He plays a role in all this as we will soon see.

Mark’s Remarks: All the introductions have been made so now we can get into the story! Hang in there folks it all starts to gather steam and make sense from here on out. Really.

Here is an in depth biography of the career of Stan Lee courtesy of those wonderous folks atWikipedia:

Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber, December 28, 1922) is an American comic-book writer, editor, film executive producer, and publisher. He was formerly editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, and later its publisher and chairman before leaving the company to become its chairman emeritus, as well as a member of the editorial board.

In collaboration with several artists, including Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Hulk, Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Daredevil, Thor, Black Panther, the X-Men, and many other fictional characters, introducing a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. In addition, he challenged the comics industry’s censorship organization, the Comics Code Authority, indirectly leading to it updating its policies. Lee subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

He was inducted into the comic book industry’s Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1995. Lee received a National Medal of Arts in 2008. He has had many cameo appearances in films and TV, he holds the number one spot in terms of total revenue generated by all the films an actor has appeared in over their lifetime.

Marvel Revolution

In the late 1950s, DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz revived the superhero archetype and experienced a significant success with its updated version of the Flash, and later with super-team the Justice League of America. In response, publisher Martin Goodman assigned Lee to come up with a new superhero team. Lee’s wife suggested him to experiment with stories he preferred, since he was planning on changing careers and had nothing to lose.

Lee acted on that advice, giving his superheroes a flawed humanity, a change from the ideal archetypes that were typically written for preteens. Before this, most superheroes were idealistically perfect people with no serious, lasting problems. Lee introduced complex, naturalistic characters who could have bad tempers, fits of melancholy, and vanity; they bickered amongst themselves, worried about paying their bills and impressing girlfriends, got bored or even were sometimes physically ill.

The first superhero group Lee and artist Jack Kirby created together was theFantastic Four, based on previous Kirby superhero team Challengers of the Unknown published by DC Comics. The team’s immediate popularity led Lee and Marvel’s illustrators to produce a cavalcade of new titles. Again working with Kirby, Lee co-created the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and the X-Men; with Bill Everett, Daredevil; and with Steve Ditko, Doctor Strange and Marvel’s most successful character, Spider-Man, all of whom lived in a thoroughly shared universe. Lee and Kirby gathered several of their newly created characters together into the team title The Avengers and would revive characters from the 1940s such as the Sub-Mariner and Captain America.

Comics historian Peter Sanderson wrote that in the 1960s:

DC was the equivalent of the big Hollywood studios: After the brilliance of DC’s reinvention of the superhero … in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it had run into a creative drought by the decade’s end. There was a new audience for comics now, and it wasn’t just the little kids that traditionally had read the books. The Marvel of the 1960s was in its own way the counterpart of the French New Wave…. Marvel was pioneering new methods of comics storytelling and characterization, addressing more serious themes, and in the process keeping and attracting readers in their teens and beyond. Moreover, among this new generation of readers were people who wanted to write or draw comics themselves, within the new style that Marvel had pioneered, and push the creative envelope still further.

Lee’s revolution extended beyond the characters and storylines to the way in which comic books engaged the readership and built a sense of community between fans and creators. He introduced the practice of regularly including a credit panel on the splash page of each story, naming not just the writer and penciller but also the inker and letterer. Regular news about Marvel staff members and upcoming storylines was presented on the Bullpen Bulletins page, which (like the letter columns that appeared in each title) was written in a friendly, chatty style. Lee has said that his goal was for fans to think of the comics creators as friends, and considered it a mark of his success on this front that, at a time when letters to other comics publishers were typically addressed “Dear Editor”, letters to Marvel addressed the creators by first name (e.g. “Dear Stan and Jack”) By 1967, the brand was well-enough ensconced in popular culture that a March 3 WBAI radio program with Lee and Kirby as guests was titled “Will Success Spoil Spiderman”.

Throughout the 1960s, Lee scripted, art-directed and edited most of Marvel’s series, moderated the letters pages, wrote a monthly column called “Stan’s Soapbox”, and wrote endless promotional copy, often signing off with his trademark motto, “Excelsior!” (which is also the New York state motto). To maintain his workload and meet deadlines, he used a system that was used previously by various comic-book studios, but due to Lee’s success with it, became known as the “Marvel Method“. Typically, Lee would brainstorm a story with the artist and then prepare a brief synopsis rather than a full script. Based on the synopsis, the artist would fill the allotted number of pages by determining and drawing the panel-to-panel storytelling. After the artist turned in penciled pages, Lee would write the word balloons and captions, and then oversee the lettering and coloring. In effect, the artists were co-plotters, whose collaborative first drafts Lee built upon. Lee recorded messages to the newly formed Merry Marvel Marching Society fan club in 1965.

Following Ditko’s departure from Marvel in 1966, John Romita Sr. became Lee’s collaborator on The Amazing Spider-Man. Within a year, it overtook Fantastic Four to become the company’s top seller. Lee and Romita’s stories focused as much on the social and college lives of the characters as they did on Spider-Man’s adventures. The stories became more topical, addressing issues such as the Vietnam War, political elections, and student activism. Robbie Robertson, introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man #51 (August 1967) was one of the first African-American characters in comics to play a serious supporting role. In the Fantastic Four series, the lengthy run by Lee and Kirby produced many acclaimed storylines as well as characters that have become central to Marvel, including the Inhumans and the Black Panther, an African king who would be mainstream comics’ first black superhero.

The story frequently cited as Lee and Kirby’s finest achievement is the three-part “Galactus Trilogy” that began in Fantastic Four #48 (March 1966), chronicling the arrival of Galactus, a cosmic giant who wanted to devour the planet, and his herald, the Silver Surfer. Fantastic Four #48 was chosen as #24 in the 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time poll of Marvel’s readers in 2001. Editor Robert Greenberger wrote in his introduction to the story that “As the fourth year of the Fantastic Four came to a close, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby seemed to be only warming up. In retrospect, it was perhaps the most fertile period of any monthly title during the Marvel Age.” Comics historian Les Daniels noted that “the mystical and metaphysical elements that took over the saga were perfectly suited to the tastes of young readers in the 1960s”, and Lee soon discovered that the story was a favorite on college campuses. Lee and artist John Buscema launched The Silver Surfer series in August 1968.

The following year, Lee and Gene Colan created the Falcon, comics’ second African-American superhero in Captain America #117 (September 1969). Then in 1971, Lee indirectly helped reform the Comics Code. The U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare had asked Lee to write a comic-book story about the dangers of drugs and Lee conceived a three-issue subplot in The Amazing Spider-Man #96–98 (cover-dated May–July 1971), in which Peter Parker’s best friend becomes addicted to pills. The Comics Code Authority refused to grant its seal because the stories depicted drug use; the anti-drug context was considered irrelevant. With Goodman’s cooperation and confident that the original government request would give him credibility, Lee had the story published without the seal. The comics sold well and Marvel won praise for its socially conscious efforts. The CCA subsequently loosened the Code to permit negative depictions of drugs, among other new freedoms.

Lee also supported using comic books to provide some measure of social commentary about the real world, often dealing with racism and bigotry. “Stan’s Soapbox”, besides promoting an upcoming comic book project, also addressed issues of discrimination, intolerance, or prejudice.

In 1972, Lee stopped writing monthly comic books to assume the role of publisher. His final issue of The Amazing Spider-Man was #110 (July 1972) and his last Fantastic Four was #125 (August 1972).

Later Career

In later years, Lee became a figurehead and public face for Marvel Comics. He made appearances at comic book conventions around America, lecturing at colleges and participating in panel discussions. Lee and John Romita Sr. launched the Spider-Man newspaper comic strip on January 3, 1977. Lee’s final collaboration with Jack Kirby, The Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience, was published in 1978 as part of the Marvel Fireside Books series and is considered to be Marvel’s first graphic novel. Lee and John Buscema produced the first issue of The Savage She-Hulk (February 1980), which introduced the female cousin of the Hulk and crafted a Silver Surfer story for Epic Illustrated #1 (Spring 1980). He moved to California in 1981 to develop Marvel’s TV and movie properties. He has been an executive producer for, and has made cameo appearances in, Marvel film adaptations and other movies. He occasionally returned to comic book writing with various Silver Surfer projects including a 1982 one-shot drawn by John Byrne, The Judgment Day graphic novel illustrated by John Buscema, The Parable limited series drawn by French artist Mœbius, and The Enslavers graphic novel with Keith Pollard. Lee was briefly president of the entire company, but soon stepped down to become publisher instead, finding that being president was too much about numbers and finance and not enough about the creative process he enjoyed.

Peter Paul and Lee began a new Internet-based superhero creation, production, and marketing studio, Stan Lee Media, in 1998. It grew to 165 people and went public through a reverse merger structured by investment banker Stan Medley in 1999, but, near the end of 2000, investigators discovered illegal stock manipulation by Paul and corporate officer Stephan Gordon. Stan Lee Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February 2001. Paul was extradited to the U.S. from Brazil and pleaded guilty to violating SEC Rule 10b-5 in connection with trading of his stock in Stan Lee Media. Lee was never implicated in the scheme. In 2001, Lee, Gill Champion, and Arthur Lieberman formed POW! (Purveyors of Wonder) Entertainment to develop film, television and video game properties. Lee created the risqué animated superhero series Stripperella for Spike TV. In 2004 POW! Entertainment went public. Also that year, Lee announced a superhero program that would feature Ringo Starr, the former Beatle, as the lead character. Additionally, in August of that year, Lee announced the launch of Stan Lee’s Sunday Comics, a short-lived subscription service hosted by Komikwerks.com. On March 15, 2007, after Stan Lee Media had been purchased by Jim Nesfield, the company filed a lawsuit against Marvel Entertainment for $5 billion, claiming Lee had given his rights to several Marvel characters to Stan Lee Media in exchange for stock and a salary. On June 9, 2007, Stan Lee Media sued Lee; his newer company, POW! Entertainment; and POW! subsidiary QED Entertainment.

In 2008, Lee wrote humorous captions for the political fumetti book Stan Lee Presents Election Daze: What Are They Really Saying? In April of that year, Brighton Partners and Rainmaker Animation announced a partnership POW! to produce a CGI film series, Legion of 5. Other projects by Lee announced in the late 2000s included a line of superhero comics for Virgin Comics, a TV adaptation of the novel Hero, a foreword to Skyscraperman by skyscraper fire-safety advocate and Spider-Man fan Dan Goodwin, a partnership with Guardian Media Entertainment and The Guardian Project to create NHL superhero mascots and work with the Eagle Initiative program to find new talent in the comic book field.

In October, Lee announced he would partner with 1821 Comics on a multimedia imprint for children, Stan Lee’s Kids Universe, a move he said addressed the lack of comic books targeted for that demographic; and that he was collaborating with the company on its futuristic graphic novel Romeo & Juliet: The War, by writer Max Work and artist Skan Srisuwan. At the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International, Lee announced his YouTube channel, Stan Lee’s World of Heroes, which airs programs created by Lee, Mark Hamill, Peter David, Adrianne Curry, and Bonnie Burton among others. Lee wrote the book, Zodiac released in January 2015, with Stuart Moore. The film Stan Lee’s Annihilator, based on a Chinese prisoner-turned-superhero named Ming and in production since 2013, is set for a 2015 release.

In his later career, Lee’s contributions continued to expand outside the style that he helped pioneer. An example of this is his first work for DC Comics in the 2000s, launching the Just Imagine… series, in which Lee re-imagined the DC superheroes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Flash. Manga projects involving Lee include Karakuridôji Ultimo, a collaboration with Hiroyuki Takei, Viz Media and Shueisha, and Heroman, serialized in Square Enix’s Monthly Shonen Gangan with the Japanese company Bones. In 2011, Lee started writing a live-action musical, The Yin and Yang Battle of Tao.

This period also saw a number of collaborators honor Lee for his influence on the comics industry. In 2006, Marvel commemorated Lee’s 65 years with the company by publishing a series of one-shot comics starring Lee himself meeting and interacting with many of his co-creations, including Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, the Thing, Silver Surfer, and Doctor Doom. These comics also featured short pieces by such comics creators as Joss Whedon and Fred Hembeck, as well as reprints of classic Lee-written adventures. At the 2007 Comic-Con International, Marvel Legends introduced a Stan Lee action figure. The body beneath the figure’s removable cloth wardrobe is a re-used mold of a previously released Spider-Man action figure, with minor changes. Comikaze Expo, Los Angeles’ largest comic book convention, was rebranded as Stan Lee’s Comikaze Presented by POW! Entertainment in 2012.

At the 2016 Comic-Con International, Lee introduced his digital graphic novel Stan Lee’s ‘God Woke’, with text originally written as a poem he presented at Carnegie Hall in 1972. The print-book version won the 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards’ Outstanding Books of the Year Independent Voice Award.

Whew! Stan has done more in 95 years than most could accomplish in 200! Supposing someone could live that long. 😉 What an inspiration! ’nuff said!

New Talent Department! His name is Steve Moore – BUT he’s not the guy who has done The Bleachers comic strip and has 2 or 3 animated movies to his credit as well. This guy is a new and rising star. Check out a few of his art works in this blog. Mr. Moore is a graduate of the Academy of Art University who claim graduate who have been hired at such places as Marvel, the New York Times, Wired Magazine and others. Check out his web page for lots more art samples: stevemooresart.com.

SheUn –Steve Moore is the creator, writer and artist of a three issue mini series, which he also has collected in a single edition, featuring SheUn and the Theory of Fuzzy Entanglements. SheUn is “an unhinged teenage girl and her eccentric grandfather travel through time and space leaving havoc in their wake.” The initial offering is a three issue, Standard Comic, Black & White, 56 Pages with color covers. It is available from IndyPlanet.

Academy of Art Works! Academy students are encouraged to pursue collaborative opportunities with talented colleagues from other disciplines at the university and beyond. This is the story of Alexandria Huntington, a School of IllustrationBFA student recently chosen in an international contest sponsored by Adobe to create a one-of-a-kind Marvel Avengers comic. Discover how you, too, can create cool art while in school. This is your time. Your dream. Your career. Your journey.

Black Widow’s New Handler – Alexandria Huntington BFA Student, School of Illustration. Summer 2015 will go down as one for the books for Alexandria Huntington, for this was the summer she took the Con…the pop culture phenomenon Comic-Con, that is. Huntington was one of four student-artists selected in an international contest sponsored by Adobe to create two pages for a limited-edition, student-illustrated comic book centering on Marvel’s Avengers characters. Huntington handled the arc of the popular Black Widow character (played by Scarlett Johansson in the film blockbusters), while three other (male) students focused on Iron Man, Captain America and Thor. “It was a thrill to be at Comic-Con as the only woman on that particular Marvel panel, signing autographs and giving out the comic,” she says.

The Project- In a unique partnership, Adobe and Marvel joined forces to create the first-ever Avengers comic fully illustrated by students, powered—in another first—by the Adobe Creative Cloud software suite. Marvel editors mentored and guided four students chosen from a pool of about 50 hopefuls to create an instantly vintage “origins” comic book that debuted to great fanfare at San Diego Comic-Con 2015. The effort gave Huntington and her peers a truly one-of-a-kind experience working with industry leaders. “That was obviously a really cool project,” she says. “Creating this comic opened my eyes to the creative process, and how Marvel artists approach their comics. They’re very specific about what they want, and that pushes you to work really hard to achieve the quality they’re known for.” (Source: www.academyart.edu)

Mark’s Remarks: This past week was the first time I had seen Steve Moore’s artwork. I discovered it over at IndyPlanet. I like to go over their pages every week and see if there is any new titles which I would like to support. When I saw Steve Moore’sSheUn books I liked the art. There seemed to be a little Dave Stevens influenced there. I liked the mixture of realism and cartoony style. The chapters are very humorous and the storyline is not too heavy. Lighthearted but not campy. The price of $3.49 for the digital version was a little high but from the samples I thought it might be worth it. I was not disappointed. You might not want to commit to all three issues but give one a try. There is a collected version all three issues for 6 or 7 bucks if you want to go that route.

I don’t follow a lot of current books but every now and then I run up on something I like. I enjoy searching for independent gems. I think Steve Moore is a creator to keep and eye one. I expect him to make his mark in the comics industry.

Onward!

Mark

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Archives Spotlight

Archive’s Spotlight is designed to look at all which has come before and add new comments as well. This posting we are reviewing Project New Man 4 Page 31!

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Project: New Man #4 – Page 31 – Only minor art changes on the last panel of this page.NewMan’s dialog exchange with CyberTech was the main modification here. This one was actually done a couple weeks ago but slipped through the cracks when we posted. This week we’ve been doing mainly art retouching in PNM #3 in prepping these books for printing with Ka-Blam Comic Book Printing and digital sales at IndyPlanet as well as DriveThru Comics. We should have some of that posted next week.